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Twitter temporarily shuts down ability to tweet via SMS

The social media site makes the call after its CEO Jack Dorsey's account was hacked.

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Shelby Brown (she/her/hers) is an editor for CNET's services team. She covers tips and tricks for apps, operating systems and devices, as well as mobile gaming and Apple Arcade news. Shelby also oversees Tech Tips coverage. Before joining CNET, she covered app news for Download.com and served as a freelancer for Louisville.com.
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Twitter said it shut down tweeting via SMS to protect accounts. 

Angela Lang/CNET

Twitter's support page said on Wednesday that it's turning off the ability to tweet via SMS, or text message, to protect people's accounts. The shutdown is only temporary, according to a series of tweets from the social media site. For now, users can only tweet online or on mobile.

"We're taking this step because of vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers and our reliance on having a linked phone number for two-factor authentication (we're working on improving this)," Twitter Support wrote.

The site said it'll reactivate the feature in "markets that depend on SMS for reliable communication soon" while it works on a long-term fix. Twitter stopped the service after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account was hacked last Friday. The people responsible were tweeting sexist, racist and anti-Semitic comments, as well as bomb threats. 

Twitter didn't immediately respond to request for further comment. 

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